Letters to the Editor: Reader sees irony in outrage over Hazard’s homecoming ‘man pageant’

Vaccine ‘cult’

Herald-Leader Opinions columnist Linda Blackford’s latest put down of all of us who question the COVID-19 “vaccine” safety is a disgusting left wing propaganda hit piece. Not everyone who hasn’t gotten the jab is a “MAGA”. There are volumes of information showing the side effects, including death, of these shots. There are highly credentialed scientists, doctors, epidemiologists, and lawyers who advise caution, but they are never interviewed on mainstream media.

The fact that our government seeks to force all citizens to receive the shot against their will should cause every American to shudder in disbelief. However, many agree that our civil liberties and bodily autonomy should be breached for a “vaccine” which neither stops people from getting, spreading, or dying of the virus. It is like a cult of vaccines, and Ms. Blackford is a good lieutenant in her efforts to squash the disobedient.

I am considered older, but I haven’t even had a cold in the last two years. I eat a plant based diet, exercise regularly, and take no prescription drugs. I have never been tested, have not submitted to the questionable vaccine and never will. I am healthy, but apparently that is not enough for the cult. I must be coerced to take an experimental medical product that comes with a host of risks in order to make cult members like Ms. Blackford feel safer.

Nina Reidmiller, Lexington

Judicial selection

Robert Curran’s recent op-ed was spot on. One thing he left out is how our lifetime judicial appointments are now approved by a bare majority of senators. I believe Sen. Mitch McConnell is also responsible for that change to the Senate filibuster rules. A non-elected person with so much power should not be approved to a lifetime job by just 50% of the Senate. This Senate rule must be changed.

Bob Crovo, Lexington

Police unions

I agree with Barry Saturday’s op-ed to end police unions. However, I strongly disagree with his assertion that “(u)nions are effectively lobbyists accountable only to themselves.”

Unions are accountable to the workers who pay their dues. The thing is, police unions aren’t actually unions, and that’s because they aren’t accountable to their workers; they’re accountable to property owners.

Police, as an institution, were created to protect private property. Someone steals your car, police get it back. At least, that’s the theory.

In reality, get on Nextdoor and watch how many neighbors post door cam footage of prowlers searching for unlocked cars. Call the police and ask what they can do. Unless they see it happen, they can’t do anything about your stolen cash or radio. Even with video footage, they can’t do much.

But if factory workers decide they should take the equipment from some billionaire owner, the police will be there in a heartbeat, tossing tear gas canisters and cracking skulls.

This perfectly demonstrates why police unions aren’t unions: the police work for the rich elite, not the working class.

So yes, end the police union because it is anti-worker. And also, support labor unions because they are pro-worker.

Bronson O’Quinn, Lexington

Hazard pageant

News stories sometimes are good sources of irony. But the events surrounding the reactions to the recent risqué homecoming assembly at Hazard High School have provided some especially rich ironies.

Many of the same people condemning the activities are in favor of allowing biological males to use girls’ restrooms in schools or to play on girls’ athletic teams. Yet they are also voicing opposition to parents and taxpayers having a say in school policies, procedures, and curricula. The irony in these positions is exceeded only by the hypocrisy.

If people in Lexington and Louisville can voice their opinions about something that happened two or three hours away, in a place many of them probably have never visited or couldn’t find on a map, then why shouldn’t local parents and school board voters be able to make their views known on issues in their local schools? The federal government even wants to label some of these people as domestic terrorists.

If you’re outraged over a “man pageant” and a simulation of adult entertainment in a school, you should be equally outraged by other morally questionable behavior or policies. It’s intellectually inconsistent to think otherwise.

H.B. Elkins, Beattyville

Thanks, Gov. Collins

Recently these words appeared in the local press: “Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky Inc. in Georgetown will invest $461 million in upgrades, including preparation for future electric vehicles.” Thanks, once again, to Gov. Martha Layne Collins for her leadership and vision to have helped Kentucky leap forward in its economic development. Without her foresight all those many years ago, the current Toyota facility in Georgetown and all its surrounding Kentucky suppliers would probably have never come to be. She has helped so many dreams come true for so many people in Kentucky.

Gene Lockhart, Lexington

Past is present

Kudos to Ross DeAeth on the “Big Fix’‘. His op-ed was more than spot on about our future. Wish he (and everyone else) were able to visit the Topography of Terror Museum in Berlin. It doesn’t take more than 10 to 15 minutes into the tour to realize we are reliving the past today. Spotting fellow Americans walking through the museum was easy: their facial expressions, their body language, their chilling gasps. They find themselves suddenly realizing one of the worst periods in human history is repeating itself. The scary truth is Mr. DeAeth’s story doesn’t fully tell the horrors we may face should we lose our democracy… all because a con artist preaching nationalism is allowed to come to power.

Maurice J. Woolman, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Keep America free

Finally, Americans are awakening! After two years of “two weeks to bend the curve” we have reached our limit. After mandates for masks and shots for citizens, while illegal immigrants are pouring into our country with no testing or shots, we are standing up. Citizens who speak their minds at school board meetings are deemed “domestic terrorists” by the Justice Department; thousands were in the streets of New York City protesting the dictates of Mayor Bill DeBlasio; first responders and healthcare employees are choosing to jeopardize their jobs rather than take the injection against their will.

Freedom is not free. The phrase is often said but most of us thought of our history of soldiers protecting our God-given freedoms. We never expected that we would be tested, especially that our freedoms would be threatened by political leaders and bureaucrats, whose livelihoods are supported by our taxes. Our government was designed to protect our individual liberties. Americans kept thinking “this too will pass.” They now realize that unless each of us resists these encroachments on liberty, individual freedoms and the idea of America will become a historical artifact.

Ray Davis, Lexington

Redistricting input

The leaders of the Kentucky League of Women Voters (KLWV) wrote about the need for transparency in the redistricting process underway in Frankfort: “The (Republican) legislative leaders who control the General Assembly in Frankfort don’t want any advice. Not from civic groups. Not from outsiders. Not even from voters — you know, the people they represent.”

They went on to say that the group and others urged lawmakers to form an advisory commission to get public input on redistricting. “We were ignored. Since then the League, along with other civic groups and individuals, has been advocating for an open and transparent process with public hearings throughout the state on the subject. That is not happening.”

The KLWV created maps using the same data the Republicans have and went around the state sharing and getting public input; then in an interim joint House and Senate committee meeting were given only five minutes to show them.

Several Republicans expressed their desire for a special session before January to get redistricting “done and out of the way” before the regular session.

If so, then why not share the maps for all to see? Transparency and working together is always a good thing, they said about pandemic issues facing Kentucky. Isn’t our democracy worthy of that too?

Joe Graviss, Versailles

Loosen marijuana rules

I support the passage of a lowest-level enforcement priority ordinance (LLEPO) on cannabis by our Urban County Council. Lexington should follow Louisville’s example and send a strong message that our community won’t abide outdated, discriminatory, or any arrest for a substance that has been proven to reduce opioid usage (far from a gateway drug, cannabis has been proven to help people overcome addictive opiates and benzos), to ease depression and insomnia, to curb juvenile seizures, to reduce intraocular pressure, and to even help people cope with fibromyalgia and other chronic pain.

Possession of small amounts of cannabis should not be treated as a crime, an infraction, or any other violation of public order. It is a medical and personal choice, and to violate that freedom in the modern age is untenable and cruel. Pass an LLEPO and state, for the record, that Lexington does not support and will not engage in the failed war on cannabis.

Noland Aull, Lexington

‘Whose country?’

Recently we watched the funeral and eulogies for General Colin Powell. Speaker after speaker remarked Colin Powell was revered and loved by almost everyone regardless of political affiliation. He was a uniter, not a divider. He did not hold himself above anyone. He especially loved his soldiers and they returned his love.

The thought occurs to me of just how different he was from “the former guy” who divided the country, told thousands of lies in four years, and who despised everyone he regarded as weak or below him in economic status and who referred to the soldiers killed in battle in France as “losers and suckers.”

So what did General Powell think of the “former guy”? This is a direct quotation: “The one word I have to use with respect to what he’s been doing for the last several years is the word I would never have used before, never would have used with any of the four presidents I worked for: He lies,” Powell added. “He (Donald Trump) lies about things, and he gets away with it because people will not hold him accountable.”

So whose country is it? General Colin Powell or “the former guy?”

James Porter, Danville

COVID comparison

As a daily listener of WUKY I can’t help but notice they broadcast with regularity the current COVID infection rates along with COVID death rates.

These numbers can seem a little scary and perhaps that’s the desired effect.

But I wonder how these numbers compare to weekly/monthly death rates from smoking, alcohol, diabetes, drunk driving, and or other deaths in Kentucky not regularly reported on.

I have a sneaking suspicion that if blanket death rates were reported on, COVID may in fact cease to be seen as such a monster to the masses.

Natalie Wells, Haines City, Fla.